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On the subject of Christmas spirits, I also received a bottle of George T. Stagg bourbon and Eagle Rare bourbon. The Stagg stuff is 141 proof and mind-numbingly (literally) good. Both are Buffalo Trace Distilliary; the Eagle is quite a bit cheaper than the Stagg and, IMHO, an *excellent* buy. Possibly one of the best inexpensive bourbons I've had. Stagg may be taking the place of the best effingham serious booze I own, a spot previously occupied by Booker's. Booker's tastes very good but there's no denying it's downright flammable. The Stagg is every bit as volitile, but has a superior flavor. If you like unfiltered bourbons (as I do), I'd give it a go.

Picked up bottles of Knob Creek and Monkey Shoulder on the way home the other night. Also have a bottle of Breckenridge Bourbon sitting in Steve's flat that he trafficked back from the USA, really really looking forward to having that again.

Knob Creek is a classic. I'm always sad that more bars don't carry it - for whatever reason, Woodford's Reserve seems to have taken over locally for it.

A while back I posted some questions about converting a PS3 to do media playback and resolved it wasn't possible without investing far more work than it was worth. A couple days later I overheard one of our employees (a student) lamenting that he really wanted to play GTAV but couldn't swing the dough to buy a PS3 and the game. I really like this guy - he's one of the few people that doesn't make my work life a living hell - so a couple weeks ago I bagged up my 20-hour old PS3 and all its gear and brought it in as a late Christmas gift. His boss thought that was awesome and picked up GTAV via Amazon Prime at the same time. Very cool.

Friday afternoon I found a box on my chair with a thank you note. In side the box was;

Three amazing bourbons for a PS3? I could not have hoped for a better result.

Can we speak a little on beer in this thread? I'm just not hardcore enough anymore to drink liquor.

Being Canadian, I've always drank the usual Canadian stuff (Canadian, Coor's Light, Keith's, etc) but really decided, lately, that I just don't like the taste enough, and I'm not a rampant alcoholic so I can't just guzzle until I don't feel it anymore.

For a while I've been drinking Lech:

Which I quite like. It goes down relatively smoothly, it's quite fizzy and it tastes crisp. But it's also pretty bitter in the aftertaste.

Then, at a party at a friend's bar, I sampled the greatest thing I have ever tasted--Grimbergen.

Ooooooh yum. Yum in my tummy. It came in that exact glass, with that kind of head on it. Fucking delicious. No bitterness, a hint of caramel, and strong enough to get ya fuckin' drunk on a couple of them. This was the first dark beer of any kind I'd had in ages, since I first tried Guinness when I was like 16--which I DESPISED. So this came as a bit of a shock.

The downside? It only JUST came to Canada, and I have searched high and low with absolutely NO luck. So far, it's only available to restaurants and bars, to be put on tap. I'm sad.

Until the glorious day that it becomes available by the bottle, I've been trying to find something similar. And it turns out it's Belgian Dubbels, brewed by monks, in general, that I like. So far, this is the best I've found:

Quite good, though just a tiny bit bitter, unlike Grimbergen. On the plus side, it comes in bottles. So I think for now, I'm gonna go with that.

I also tried Chimay's dubbel:

Also quite nice, but again, more bitter than Grimbergen. And, go figure, at least in Canada, they only sell the fucker in WINE BOTTLE size. Which is about three of those bigger glasses. Kinda lame.

Any beer connoisseurs know more about Belgian dubbels or what else I might try?

I had a Leffe Blonde yesterday, actually. I prefer Chimay Blue over the Red label. It's even darker and smoother.

My decision to shift focus towards liquor was motivated by weight loss. A nice strong bottle of beer can hit 3-400 calories, an equally nice large bourbon is 100 or so.

I do have a few bottles from Hastings Brewery to check out tonight though since I spent a day back in my old stomping ground yesterday and picked them up from the little organic vegan bakery that is their sole retail outlet.

Hell yes. I loved the Canadian beers that I tried when I was in Hamilton a few years back. I remember trying Schlitz Gold, 666, 10W30 and Alexander Keith's IPA. We've had Keith's here locally for a few years now, except for the IPA, which is the best of the Keith's I've tried.